MARTINSVILLE, Va. – It took nearly six years, 190 races and three different teams, but Clint Bowyer finally ended his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drought with a stirring victory in Monday’s snow-delayed STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

Bowyer dominated the second half of the race, taking the lead shortly after the start of the final stage when he charged to the inside of then-leader Ryan Blaney in turns three and four to assume command over the field.

He never relinquished the top spot under green flag conditions again, only losing the lead coming down pit road for the final round of pit stops on lap 386. He paced the final 114 laps en route to his ninth-career Cup Series win and first since Oct. 13, 2012 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Finally! Finally,” said Bowyer as he came to the flagstand, after leading more laps (215) on Monday than in his last 159 starts combined.

“To have it come here … this is a place where I’ve come so close and I wanted to win that grandfather clock so bad,” said Bowyer in victory lane. “We got so close back in 2012. … It was just time. For whatever reason, it felt right driving up here.

“Gene Haas and Tony Stewart gave this old dog a fresh chance and a new opportunity. I can’t thank them enough. To finally get the (No.) 14 in victory lane, it’s just a weight off my shoulders. It’s been a long time. You start to question if you can still get it done or not. I’m telling you, this means a lot today. This car was amazing; it was so strong.”

After a clean day in which the only early interruptions were a competition caution at lap 50 and the two stage breaks on laps 130 and 260, the first incident of the day finally occurred with 117 to go, when Jamie McMurray got turned around by Austin Dillon and smacked the outside wall in turn two.

At that point, Clint Bowyer was the leader over a hard-charging Kyle Busch, a position he was able to hold after pit stops when he won the race off pit road.

When the green flag waved over the field again with 109 laps left, Bowyer shot like a bullet out in front from the high lane, slowly but surely stretching out to a one second lead over Busch over the next 35 circuits as his No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford got better and better through the long run.

Bowyer was flawless during the final green flag sequence, slowly but surely extending his margin over runner-up Busch and then maintaining just over a one-second gap through much of the final 50 circuits.

Though Busch did catch Bowyer in lap traffic with 15 to go, Bowyer worked the slower cars to perfection and crossed under the checkered flag 1.146 seconds clear of Busch in the end.

After yet another close call without a win, Busch’s frustration was evident once he climbed from his car.

“I’m not sure what we can take away from today, other than I guess the fact that we’re a championship-caliber team,” lamented Busch. “We just have to keep executing and doing a good job. We’re doing that now, but things just aren’t falling our way.

“Our car was really good today. We were better in the race than we were in practice, so that’s improvement, but I wasn’t expecting the 14 (Bowyer) to be one of the guys that we had to race for the win. It’s funny that for as far ahead of third as we were today, the leader was that far ahead of us. It seems like we’re on our own island, but we keep getting beat by someone who’s on their own island.”

Ryan Blaney, who led 145 laps and won the second stage on Monday, crossed the line third ahead of defending Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick.

Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, A.J. Allmendinger, Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10.

Denny Hamlin won the opening stage and led 111 of the first 145 laps, but had issues late in the race and ended up 12th.